During the Spring term, we have investigated levers and pulleys in the classroom and during forest school:
Science
Bitterns Science
In Bitterns we have been learning about materials in science. This week we listened to the story of the The Three Little Pigs. We then carried out an investigation into ‘Which material would be most suitable for building the three little pigs a house’. To make this a fair test all the teams had a choice of two types of building materials and each house was wafted for 20 seconds. The children worked collaboratively to create four completed houses which could be tested. We also discussed which of the houses might be waterproof.Â
Investigating Materials and their Properties
Kingfishers have been busy exploring a collection of properties by applying different forces and then recording their results. Our next step is to find out how these properties make materials suited to different uses.
Making Silly Putty
As part of their work on exploring the properties of materials and forces, Kingfishers made silly putty. Throughout the activity, the properties of their mixture changed and they were challenged to think of words to describe the properties. With their successful putty, they explored which forces they needed to apply to change the shape.
It was great fun, if a little messy!!
If you want to have a go at home, you need 60ml of washing up liquid and 45g of cornflour.
Wind Energy Museum Trip
On our trip to the Wind Energy museum, we experimented with changing the number of blades to generate electricity from a wind turbine; tried out alternative power – elastic bands to turn blades to run cars and wind power to fly kites.
Herons Science
We have been exploring pre- history to find out about how the fossil record millions of years ago can explain changes in climate and evolution.
We have made our own fossils from by casting plaster of paris in moulds of seashells pressed into clay.
We had to be paleantologists and “dig out” the fossils we had made from the clay using tools and toothbrushes!
We have investigated different rock characteristics- some rocks are permeable and absorb water.
Kingfishers Fossils
We have been finding out about what fossils are and how they are formed. We then had fun making our own examples of fossils. We made salt dough and then used dinosaurs to make impressions!!
